MH Kelvin for coral growth

[ksfireman]

I am using a 2x150 hqi with 1 96wpc for lighting. Currently am running a generic 10k bulb.

If given a choice of kelvin, what would you say promotes the best coral growth?

[johnny gray]

i run 3 de 250 20 k and 2 de 150 55k and 4 160 supper blue

[Samper]

I voted other bc I believe a 6500k has the best growth. I've personally only ran 20k and 14k bulbs in the MH genre. I noticed my colors were better with the 20k but growth was better with the 14k.

[DapperDan]

6.5k would be the right choice.

DD

[johnny gray]

just wonder what your planing
most corals need a high Kalvin to Maintain their color (sps mainly)6500 k are real yellow

[The Grim Reefer]

I know when I was shopping for 150 watt halides the highest output lamp Sanjay had measured was a BLV 10K. Not sure if there is a new leader now or not.

[ksfireman]

I have a few soft corals, some mushrooms, some zoos, a frogspawn, a small colt coral frag, some xenia, a plate coral, some star polyps, and some gorgonia. I am leaning towards some clams here in the near future. I am just looking for the best coral growth that I can get with my 150 hqi.


Bradd

[BubbaWPB]

As with so many questions in this hobby, the best answer will probably be, "It depends on what you have in the tank." What type of corals are you asking about? SPS? LPS? Mushrooms? Other soft corals? Mixed?

I will make an educated guess that coral growth and light would probably depend on the coral species and where it grows naturally. Corals that typically grow in shallow waters might have a different growth pattern than corals that typically grow in deeper water under the same lamp and conditions. As you probably know by now, different light colors have different abilities to penetrate the water. Also some corals can get too much light.

I use 150 W 10K MH with actinic fluorescent supplementation. Aside from telling you what I have, and that the corals are doing well, I can't answer your poll since I haven't done any controlled experiements. I have mixed corals, by the way, SPS, LPS, mushrooms and toadstools.

[Horace]

At first I was going to just give you the blanket statement of 6500k but like Bubba said, it really depends. If your going for SPS then 6500k MAY be the fastest way to grow corals, but it also may look like butt. I think a pretty safe answer is 10k, because it looks better and produces a high amount of PAR. I would just stick with 10k if I was you. If you want a more blue look, go with a 14k. If you go to 20k your coral growth will likely be a tad slower.

[charlie]

I voted 10k, I run 20k on my sps tank. Go figure!!!

[farmer_dan]

if you are just looking for FASTEST growth then 6500K the corals will "color up" when you put them under the display bulb you like either 10K or 14K or even 20K bulbs all good chocie for showing best color.


Taylor

[Mman]

i use 2 x 6500K MH noticed that my bubbles open big . but when i use T5 10k 12k , it does not open that big .

[vtec si]

I'm running 10k and 15k on my tank.

[Steven Pro]

Other - 6,500 K Iwasaki's

They make everything grow much faster than other lamps I have tried.

[Ninong]

If given a choice of kelvin, what would you say promotes the best coral growth?

The premise of your question is misdirected.

The 6500K Iwasaki lamps ("pound for pound" = PPFD/w) are the "best" out there. Then you have to decide what your definition of best is.

A 400w Iwasaki 6500K metal halide lamp produces more PAR (PPFD is a measurement of PAR) than any other 400w metal halide lamp. Therefore, it would support more growth than any other 400w metal halide lamp, assuming the spectrum is acceptable, and it is.

Does that make it the "best" lamp? That's for you to decide. It certainly wouldn't be the best lamp for me unless I was in a position to supplement it with a ton of blue from some 20,000K metal halides AND some actinic fluorescents. That's because I wouldn't like the appearance of the tank under just 6500K Iwasaki lamps.

The best choice for me would probably be a combination of 10,000K and 20,000K metal halides supplemented with fluorescent actinics because that's the look I like the most and it provides more than enough PAR assuming I have selected the best lamps of an appropriate intensity.